To Question One's Faith

[anatess2]

I'm not qualified to speak for everybody, but this is what I taught my kids:

You believe in God because I do.  That's how it is supposed to be.  But, eventually, you will have to transition out of that into believing in God despite of what I believe.  Therefore, you will need to build your own testimony of Faith.  So, the first question is - Is there a God?  I say that there is.  You deposit a measure of faith that there is.  Unless that faith bears no fruit, then there's no reason to abandon it.... because the next question is much harder... Why am I here?  The answer to that question will greatly depend on your faith in the answer to the 1st.  Deposit some faith in what I tell you is Why you're here.  Unless that faith bears no fruit, then there's no reason to abandon it...

So, as you can see... I teach my kids to build their testimony through life's big questions... little by little, step by step.  Since babyhood.

 

Full Disclosure:  I am also a Catholic convert to LDS.

Edited April 20, 2016 by anatess2

[Guest MormonGator]

14 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

 

 

Full Disclosure:  I am also a Catholic convert to LDS.

I am as well. Catholic school, weekly church everything 

[anatess2]

21 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

I am as well. Catholic school, weekly church everything 

Same here.  Catholic schools from Kindergarten through a Bachelor's degree.  Cantor, lay minister, built our own chapel within the parish even... I was already 10 years into being LDS when my sister had mass held at her house for my dad when we found out he got cancer.  She asked me to be the acolyte.  I wouldn't be surprised if that mass was the only mass in the entire history of the Catholic Church that had an LDS acolyte.

 

[Traveler]

I would make the distinction between going to G-d with one's questions of faith as opposed to griping, complaining and murmuring to your fellow man.  I believe it takes more faith to truly ask questions and challenge one's faith and understanding than it is to think you know the answer.

 

The Traveler

[The Folk Prophet]

2 hours ago, tesuji said:

D&C 46 is talking about gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are gifts.

They are gifts for the asking.

[tesuji]

I found the answer to my question:

Quote

Following baptism, each of us had hands laid on our heads to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. If we are faithful, we can have His influence continually with us. Through Him, each of us can be blessed with certain spiritual powers called gifts of the Spirit. 

These gifts are given to those who are faithful to Christ. “All these gifts come from God, for the benefit of the children of God” (D&C 46:26).They help us know and teach the truths of the gospel. They will help us bless others. They will guide us back to our Heavenly Father. To use our gifts wisely, we need to know what they are, how we can develop them, and how to recognize Satan’s imitations of them.

The scriptures mention many gifts of the Spirit. These gifts have been given to members of the true Church whenever it has been on the earth (see Mark 16:16–18). 
...

To develop our gifts, we must find out which gifts we have. We do this by praying and fasting. We should seek after the best gifts (see D&C 46:8). Sometimes patriarchal blessings will help us know which gifts we have been given.

We must be obedient and faithful to be given our gifts. We then should use these gifts to do the work of the Lord. 

https://www.lds.org/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-22-the-gifts-of-the-spirit?lang=eng

 

[The Folk Prophet]

45 minutes ago, tesuji said:

I found the answer to my question:

 

Just by way of relationship to my point, do a search on that page for the word "ask" and it, I believe, clarifies my point. 

[bytebear]

11 hours ago, The Folk Prophet said:

What? How does that relate? So some of us are just given belief without our choosing so? Without bothering to pray for revelation? Without any effort on our part whatsoever? God just zaps certain individuals with belief even though they haven't exercised their agency to that end at all?

I would contend that such a belief is no belief at all, and when the storms come, such individuals, who have no foundation whatsoever, will be swept away.

When did I say without any effort on our own part.  But yes, I believe some people are given the gift to just know that Jesus is the Christ.  I have met too many people, and had too many personal experiences to say that a testimony can either be gained or be given.  I believe there are people who know the truth, but have yet to meet missionaries or found the church to know what to do with their testimony.  It's the investigator who says, "Finally, I found it!" 

[The Folk Prophet]

1 hour ago, bytebear said:

When did I say without any effort on our own part.  But yes, I believe some people are given the gift to just know that Jesus is the Christ.  I have met too many people, and had too many personal experiences to say that a testimony can either be gained or be given.  I believe there are people who know the truth, but have yet to meet missionaries or found the church to know what to do with their testimony.  It's the investigator who says, "Finally, I found it!" 

I'm not sure what you're getting at then.

[anatess2]

5 hours ago, bytebear said:

When did I say without any effort on our own part.  But yes, I believe some people are given the gift to just know that Jesus is the Christ.  I have met too many people, and had too many personal experiences to say that a testimony can either be gained or be given.  I believe there are people who know the truth, but have yet to meet missionaries or found the church to know what to do with their testimony.  It's the investigator who says, "Finally, I found it!" 

 

3 hours ago, The Folk Prophet said:

I'm not sure what you're getting at then.

Yeah, I'm not getting it either.

You're born with the truth?  That doesn't make sense.  The objective of mortality is to learn line upon line precept upon precept... with free agency.  So, a truth cannot be given unless it is asked for.  So, it all starts with a question... "Is Jesus the Christ?"  and the answer is then given.  And yes, the answer doesn't have to come from a missionary or the Church.  It can come from God himself as has happened with Peter.

[Guest]

On 4/20/2016 at 10:13 AM, anatess2 said:

I'm not qualified to speak for everybody, but this is what I taught my kids:

You believe in God because I do.  That's how it is supposed to be.  But, eventually, you will have to transition out of that into believing in God despite of what I believe.  Therefore, you will need to build your own testimony of Faith. 

I wonder how often this (the bolded part) is true.

I'll tell a bit about my religious history.

I was born in Korea and sent to a "Christian Church" for regular Sunday meetings which included Sunday School.  In spite of my youth, I remember the things taught.  It was very basic stuff.  They never taught much in the way of belief systems or what happens after we die or anything apart from this world.  We had instruction on some Bible stories, the 10 commandments, the golden rule, and a few parables.  Good principles of living, but nothing unearthly.  My guess is that they thought such things were too deep for little children.  Maybe they were right.  But I mostly got bored.

I was adopted into an LDS family and had quite a different experience.  We not only were taught principles of good living, but also things not of this earth.  I was taught to seek out the Holy Ghost as my guide.  We were taught the Plan of Salvation.  Pieces started fitting together.

I can't say I gained a testimony because of my parents (either set).  The Korean ones never really talked about religion outside of church.  The American ones didn't really spend a lot of time learning much of the doctrines (they'd been coverts for almost 15 years when they got me).  So whatever I learned, I learned on my own.

Somewhere along the line someone said that if I had a question I should ask.  So I asked.  I learned.  Sometimes the answers were correct, sometimes not.  But I had to weed through the error for the truth.  I felt the Spirit in a very rudimentary way.  But at the time, it was enough for me to have a testimony.

I've never tired of asking questions.  People have tired of me asking them.  But I feel that a testimony can't grow without a growth in knowledge.  And more knowledge is rarely obtained without having a question first.  Because I've asked many, many questions, my knowledge and faith have both grown.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Guest